Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.
Open map →Twenty shekels, and the trade road does the restGenesis 37:28 · 1 place plottedJoseph's brothers turn their hatred into a business deal. They pull him out of the pit, hand him to a passing caravan, and take the silver. Behind this family crime sits a question the rest of Genesis answers: who was really directing the sale?
The price they set
Reuben had planned to save Joseph. The sale happened while he was away, and the price his brothers took is set here beside the law's own price for a slave.
C KnappReuben's plan to save him from his brothers fails. True, they do not kill him. They strip him of his coat of many colours and throw him into a pit in the wilderness. And in Reuben's absence, it seems, they sell him to the Ishmaelites. Twenty pieces of silver is the price they get for him. This was just two-thirds the price of an average adult slave (see Ex. 21:32). Judas asked the chief priests what they would give for Jesus. Thirty pieces of silver is their offer. They valued Him at the price of a slave. Yet He was always God's delight. All angels adore Him, demons fear Him, and to the crowds of the redeemed He is the "all" and the "altogether lovely"... The sold and slighted Saviour may well watch it all and say, with what sounds like irony, "What a fine price they set on Me!" (Zech. 11:13).
The question Judah asked
Judah's proposal in the previous verse shapes what happens here. Notice which question he does not ask.
Hamilton SmithThe group of merchants on their way to Egypt at once gives Judah the idea of making a profit out of their brother. Why not sell Joseph and make a little money? If they will not feed their hatred by killing Joseph, why not feed their greed by selling him? So they gave their brother up to the Gentiles, and gave themselves up to making money... Judah asks the question for the covetous heart — not "Is it right?" or "Is it wrong?" but "What profit is it?"
Handed over to outsiders
Commentators see the sale as a picture of a later betrayal. Even the dry pit carries meaning.
Frederick W GrantIn fact they throw him into a pit that holds no water. ("It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death," the Jews said to Pilate.) Then they draw him out of it and sell him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. So Israel handed the Lord over to the Gentiles.
Where the picture stops
The picture is close, but it is not the same. The empty pit that spared Joseph marks the point where the comparison breaks down.
C StanleyLike Isaac in this picture, Joseph did not die; there was no water in the pit. But our precious Jesus sank in the deep mire... Isaac lay on the altar and was spared. Joseph went into the pit and was spared. But when Jesus hung on the cross, God did not spare His own beloved Son. Joseph's brothers treated him cruelly, yet he was not forsaken. Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"... Joseph suffered against his will. Jesus offered up His own life freely.
A crime inside a promise
The brothers thought they were getting rid of a problem. In fact they were moving their family toward the land God had told Abraham about long before.
Edward DennettThe famine was the immediate reason they went down to Egypt. But through the famine, and through the wickedness of Jacob's sons in selling their brother to the Ishmaelites (Gen. 37:28), God was simply carrying out His own purposes. Long before this He had said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions."... So even human anger is harnessed to the chariot wheels of God's decrees.
The bill comes due
Twenty years later, in an Egyptian prison, the memory of this day comes back to them.
Hamilton SmithConscience connects their present trouble with their past sin. The prison has so far done its work. They not only say, "We are guilty," but "We are guilty concerning our brother." We saw the anguish of his soul, but we hardened our hearts. He begged us, but we shut our ears to all his pleading. "That is why this distress has come upon us."
Summary
- Price — Twenty pieces of silver was two-thirds the going rate for a slave. They sold a brother for less than a stranger was worth.
- Profit — Judah's question was not "Is it right?" but "What profit is it?" Selling Joseph fed their greed instead of their hate.
- Pattern — The brothers handed Joseph to outsiders for twenty pieces. Commentators see here a picture of Christ, handed to the Gentiles and sold for thirty.
- Limit — The pit had no water, and Joseph lived. God did not spare Christ, and Christ gave Himself freely. The picture points to Him, but it never reaches Him.
- Purpose — Their crime carried out what God had told Abraham: his family would serve in a foreign land, then come out rich. God harnessed their anger to His plan. Their guilt still found them twenty years later.